Remember that? That blandly inoffensive music that would accompany you while you shopped or rode in vertical transport vehicles? It seems to be gone. Not entirely, I mean the Muzak company still exists and they still sell background music, but what is considered background music these days seems a little odd. At least to me anyway.

When I was walking into my local grocery store today, I was welcomed by the dulcet tones of Billy Idol singing “Rebel Yell”. In the past I have heard Warren Zevon, the Killers, Aerosmith (who seems to be the champion of selling out btw), and Rush, just to name a tiny few.

Granted, I like the more modern soundtracks. It is fun to be bopping through the store singing some of my favorite songs. On more than one occasion I have been busted while performing my own rendition of “Walking on Sunshine” or “Take On Me”. But there are days when I hear some pretty hard stuff and all I can think of is how the mighty have fallen. One day, blasting out the amps in 50,000 seat arenas. The next, getting interrupted by “clean-up in aisle 1!”.

But I guess they’re getting royalty payments out of the deal, so I shouldn’t feel so bad for them.